He did for an entire exhibition game three years ago against Le Moyne College, a Division II school 3½ miles east of campus that has a Dolphin for a mascot and plays in a gym with laminated wooden bleachers that seats 30,500 fewer people than the Carrier Dome. Syracuse lost 82-79.

“I think it’s safe to say we’ll go back to playing mostly zone,” Boeheim said afterward. “I’ve seen enough.”

Hey, he tried.

Boeheim remains the Orange’s coach, and the 2-3 zone remains his staple defense, and in the “Battle on the Midway” on Sunday afternoon – with blinding sun, with wind swirling in a makeshift stadium, with a conning tower as a shooting backdrop – it is 20th-ranked San Diego State’s problem.

He should know. Bland played two seasons at Syracuse before transferring to SDSU in 2000. Boeheim had already been head coach for a quarter-century, and the young Bland learned quickly about traditions that don’t die easily.

“When I went there, it was like before I knew any offense, I knew the zone,” Bland said, “because in order to be on the court you’ve got to learn how to play this defense.”

A year ago, SDSU coach Steve Fisher decided he might give zone a try again after decades of allegiance to man-to-man and asked Bland to install Boeheim’s unique rendition of the 2-3. Fisher tried it in two exhibitions. Didn’t work. Didn’t use it again.

The experience taught them two things about the Syracuse zone. First, that it needs tireless repetition over weeks, even months, of practice and games. Second, it helps to have big, long, five-star recruits with freakish athleticism spread across the back line like power lines.

“The secret is, they’ve got some good players and they’re long,” Fisher said. “But they work at the zone, boy, they really do work at it.”

Most basketball players hear 2-3 zone and they flash back to CYA leagues of their childhood, with two defenders on the top and three across the baseline – forming a human sculpture garden while their coach screams, “Get your hands up!” The idea is to rest on defense, or hide a poor defender, or protect someone in foul trouble, or cajole a poor-shooting team into taking perimeter jumpers.

Boeheim’s 2-3 is none of the above. It features specific shifts, where a backline defender will momentarily pop out to cover a wing until one of the top defenders can get there and “bump” him back to the post. There are traps in certain situations, either at the top or along the baseline. There are designated assignments for rebounding and a system for launching the fast break.

The most unique feature, perhaps, comes when the ball is entered to the high post. Most teams simply collapse. The Orange instead has its guards do the opposite, flaring to the perimeter shooters while the middle defender on the backline steps up to cover the high post.

“You can use it as a change-up defense, but to do it all game long you have to be terrific at your coverages and you have to be long enough to make up for mistakes,” said Mark Fisher, the Aztecs assistant coach who handles the offense and has the unenviable task of deciphering it. “That’s why they’re so good at it. They recruit to it, getting 6-7, 6-7, 6-9 so those guys can cover two guys at once.”

Bobby Knight, who would rather play with four men than go zone, has heaped begrudging praise on Boeheim’s scheme. In a 2010 ESPN analysis of Syracuse, the Hall of Fame coach admitted: “They do a better job at keep people outside than anybody I’ve seen play a zone defense.”

That’s fine if you can drain 40 percent of your 3-point attempts with a 6-9 guy flying at you. Now try doing it on the flight deck of a 67-year-old aircraft carrier at 1 p.m. on a Sunday in November, with sun and wind and salty air and a national television audience.

The next option is somehow threading the ball between the tangle of arms into the high or low post.

“You penetrate the gaps and drive,” SDSU point guard Xavier Thames said, “and there’s a 6-11, 250-pound guy waiting right there for you.”

“It’s not a coincidence that the teams that gave them trouble were Cincinnati with Yancy Gates and Ohio State with Jared Sullinger,” Mark Fisher said of the Syracuse team that spent most of last season ranked No. 1 until 7-0 center Fab Melo was declared academically ineligible. “But it took some big situations for them to lose. I mean, they had to lose the best shot blocker in college basketball, and then play against maybe the best low-post scorer in college basketball.”

Boeheim lost three starters from that team plus a key reserve. He merely replaced them with another crop of long, athletic recruits. The starting backline of C.J. Fair, Rakeem Christmas and DaJuan Coleman goes 6-8, 215; 6-9, 242; and 6-9, 288. The starting guards are 6-4 and 6-6.

SDSU’s biggest starter is DeShawn Stephens. He’s 6-8, 225.

The good news is this isn’t the second game of an NCAA Tournament weekend, with one day to prepare in a hotel ballroom. The Aztecs began installing zone offense last week, earlier than any time in Fisher’s career, and Bland has been teaching the scout team the nuances of the Syracuse scheme. Friday’s wet weather forecast pushed the game to Sunday and gave the Aztecs two extra days to prepare.